By Jim Brown and Bill Fancher
May 10, 2002

(AgapePress) - A charismatic church in Houston has been confronted with an issue that many mainline denominations -- among them the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA) -- have been wrestling with: Should homosexuals be allowed to become members and serve in the local church?

The Houston Vineyard has asked a lesbian couple to leave the church after they refused to abandon their lifestyle. Donna and Marti Rickard had been attending the Vineyard for two years, and were allowed to take part in communion -- but were not permitted to become official members or leaders in the church.

However, Pastor Dan Palandro recently told the couple they would no longer be served communion or offered the ministry of the church.

"In order to bring more pressure on them to really take seriously what they are doing is sin, and for the integrity of our church -- what we believe, the life we believe we're called to live -- [we felt] we needed to withhold the ministry of the church from them and ask them to leave, as an act of discipline -- in line with Matthew 18 and I Corinthians 5," the pastor says.

According the Palandro, the Houston Vineyard has always openly welcomed homosexuals to its church services. And he says those who are struggling with homosexuality are even allowed to serve "behind the scenes."

"We do have some people who are wrestling with issues of homosexuality who [for example] are serving in our food pantry, and also serving tables in another ministry we have," he says. "So we are willing for them to be in a 'serving' capacity of that nature. But areas they wanted to be in [such as] on the worship team [or] our prayer ministry team -- we wouldn't allow them to do that."

When asked if he believes the Holy Spirit would give practicing homosexuals the gift of speaking in tongues, Palandro said he was not sure.

In Washington
Meanwhile, the Bush Administration has taken some recent steps that have many pro-family leaders concerned about social issues. Peter LaBarbera of the Culture and Family Institute says it is unfortunate, but his group is seeing the Administration do "far better things" on the pro-life issue than on the issue of homosexuality.

LaBarbera believes that several recent decision by the Administration -- such as letting stand a Clinton-era policy of providing domestic-partner benefits to homosexual government workers -- indicate the president is not challenging the homosexual issue at all.

Peter LaBarbera

"There's been other gay-rights policies that were enacted by Clinton that the Bush Administration hasn't touched," LaBarbera says. "In fact, most of the gay-rights policies by Clinton [have not been] touched. So we're seeing the Administration seem to not want to touch the issue."

LaBarbera says some of those actions could hurt the Administration down the road. "They sent a homosexual ambassador to Romania, and they allowed his partner -- his homosexual lover -- to go with him and live in the embassy," he says. "These are not good things; these are things which will harm the Party's pro-family base when they learn about them."

How those pro-family voters react in the midterm elections will be key to whether the Republicans gain control of the Senate.

© 2002 AgapePress all rights reserved.

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